


Meanwhile, at Diego Garcia

by BlushLouise



Series: Holoform [4]
Category: Transformers (Bay Movies), Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: Gen, Red Alert is hopeless, Rewind watches, YouTube, public dancing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-20
Updated: 2018-04-20
Packaged: 2019-04-25 12:53:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14379069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlushLouise/pseuds/BlushLouise
Summary: It's funny what you can find on the internet. Like the life-expectancy of lobsters. The lewd drawings monks made on the edges of the manuscripts. All the theories on Area 51 - all of them wrong, too.Rewind knows that.This time, something has got every Autobot and human on the island laughing their respective backsides off. Now if only he can get away from Red Alert and monitor duty long enough to figure out what's going on!Companion piece to ch. 18 of "You had me at holoform".





	Meanwhile, at Diego Garcia

**Author's Note:**

> This one's for subbykkaya over on ff.net, and the prompt was this:
> 
> "so Isobel is friends with the old guy at the laundry building, and he let's her request songs to play over the speakers while she does her thing. and then she dances and a bot comes and sees (probably rewind? he could record it I guess) and later there's a video circling the bots of Isobel in her socks trying to moonwalk in front of a washing machine." Song: D.A.N.C.E. by Justice.
> 
> I do realize I've tweaked it a bit. A lot. I hope you'll still like it.
> 
> This takes place during chapter 18 of "You had me at 'holoform'", while Isobel's away on her shopping holiday.

Monitor duty on Diego Garcia, Rewind thinks, ranks somewhere between watching Sunstreaker's paint dry and watching Ramhorn sleep. That is, somewhere between dull but slightly meditative and plain old recharge-inducing boredom.

It's not the task in itself. Monitor duty can be very interesting. But that requires that something's happening. And on Diego Garcia, nothing worth reporting ever happens. Not since they caught Laserbeak, and barely even then. The base is just too small and too far apart from the rest of civilization.

Also, it depends on the company. Sometimes Rewind has monitor duty with Steetwise, which is interesting, or Blaster or one of the other cassettes, which can be fun. Sometimes he's with Bluestreak or Bumblebee, that's also nice, usually.

Today, he's with Red Alert.

That's not so fun.

Because Red is strict. He doesn't let you look at interesting things on the human internet, or spend the time playing a game, or even talk to pass the time. He takes his job too seriously for that, and slag anybody else who doesn't. Rewind's had his share of being reported to Prowl by Red Alert for 'goofing around' or 'acting up' or just plain old 'dereliction of duty' to bother trying anything anymore. Now, he just suffers in silence, only answering when someone talks to him, counting down the hours until he's a free cassette again.

Unfortunately, his shift just started.

He dares a stretch, rolling his shoulders to relieve the tension in his cabling. Red Alert glares at him. Rewind sighs, and looks at his console again.

He's got six vidfeeds displaying at once, and audio feeds connected to his systems through a port in his wrist. And nothing is going on.

Empty rec room. Empty airfield. Bluestreak on the shooting range. Sideswipe in the mess hall. Laserbeak in her cell. Skyview of the harbor.

Empty rec room. Empty airfield. Bluestreak on the shooting range. Sideswipe in the mess hall. Laserbeak in her cell. Skyview of the harbor.

Empty rec room. Empty airfield. Bluestreak on the shooting range. Sideswipe in the mess hall. Laserbeak in her cell. Skyview of the harbor…

Rewind fights the temptation to whack his helm against the screen. Red Alert would surely report him for that.

Empty rec room. Empty airfield. Bluestreak on the shooting range. Eject barreling into the mess hall carrying a datapad and grinning. Laserbeak in her cell. Skyview of the harbor.

Wait.

He turns his attention to the one camera feed that's actually depicting something interesting. Eject is laughing, showing Sideswipe something on the datapad. Suddenly, the silver frontliner begins laughing as well, downing the rest of his cube in one go and getting to his feet. Then, both of them leave the mess hall.

Rewind follows them as much as he can. To Bluestreak on the range, where Eject repeats the process. The feeds have no audio, but Rewind can tell from the gunner's heavily vibrating doorwings that he's laughing too. Ironhide and some of the human soldiers wander in from off-screen, and apparently whatever's so funny is also fun to the humans, because one of them whacks his palm against Sideswipe's leg and another is rubbing at his eyes with his hands. Ironhide's mirth is clear through the feed, too, optics scrunched up and head shaking.

What the frag is going on?

Rewind cycles through the camera feeds, checking all of them – not just the ones feeding to his own console, but the ones Red is keeping tabs on as well. He follows Eject as he brings his laughing entourage to the barracks, to the officer's quarters, to the hand-to-hand training area. All the time picking up more laughing mechs and humans.

This is just too weird.

He tries pinging his brother, opening their bond, but all he gets from Eject is a solid wall of mirth. Not helpful.

And now he's getting curious. Very curious. And curiosity, as the humans say, killed the cat.

Not that that saying makes much sense to him. Why would being curious kill an organic feline?

Maybe their brains are too unevolved to handle such an emotion?

Internet probably knows. Rewind makes a note to look it up when he has the chance.

For now, though, there's something else far more interesting going on.

"Red Alert, sir," Rewind says, frowning. "There's something going on among the troops. Permission to go see what all the fuss is about?"

Red Alert shoots him a look, apparently checking if he's 'goofing off' again, but seeing Rewind staring intently at the vidfeed apparently convinces the paranoid Security Director that the cassette is in fact doing his duty at the moment. He turns his focus to his own console, looking at the same vidfeeds.

"It appears so," he agrees after a minute. "All right. A quick check, and then back here. If this is something we need to be wary of, it's better to know now."

"It's probably nothing, sir," Rewind says, mentally kicking himself for possibly sabotaging his chance to get out of here for a little while at least. "After all, they're laughing."

"Yes," Red Alert replies, frowning at the feeds. "But we cannot be sure. It could be a trick – the Decepticons could have manufactured some form of… I don't know, laughing virus or something, meant to incapacitate us, and have Laserbeak deliver it. They're canny like that." He shoots a look at Rewind. "Go check it out."

Laughing virus? Rewind barely restrains himself from shaking his head. Sometimes the Security Director's notions are more far-fetched than usual. Still, it gets him out of command for a few minutes. "Yes, sir."

A quick look at the screens revealed that the epicenter of humor is back on the clearing between med bay and the barracks, so Rewind heads that way in search of his brother. He doesn't have to look for long.

"Rewind! Rewind, come look! Look!" Eject's excited voice beckons at him, the mirth and amusement in his brother's spark willingly shared over their bond and much stronger in such close proximity. Rewind is laughing almost before he reaches his brother's side.

"What's up?" he grins. "What are we laughing about?"

"This!" Eject beams, holding up his datapad.

Rewind peers at it. "Youtube? What have you found now?"

"Just watch, bro!" Eject says impatiently, pushing the datapad into Rewind's hands.

So he watches. And he understand why everyone's laughing.

The footage is from a cell phone camera. It's a city, one he doesn't recognize. The video, helpfully, is called 'London dancing in the street, madness ensues', so at least he has a name for the city. There's a store front, shining lights in the windows, lots and lots of people. The time stamp's from yesterday.

He plugs the datapad into the port on his wrist to get audio. The music's glaringly loud and distorted by the speaker system, until it's barely recognizable as music to him and just sounds like noise. Based on the people in the video though, it has to be music. Nobody dances to noise.

The person who's filming is standing at the edge of a cordoned-off open space in front of a music store of sorts. There's a small group of people dancing inside the cordons, moving more or less along with the music, all wearing their winter jackets and hats. And in the middle of the group, a familiar, slender figure.

She's grinning wildly, her blonde hair flying around her face as she twists and moves along with the music. It doesn't seem to bother her that she's in the middle of a crowd, surrounded by people she doesn't know. She's just having fun.

And Rewind's having fun watching her.

The music/noise changes, and the people in the impromptu dance floor giggle and walk away in ones and twos.

Except for Isobel. She's wide-eyed, giggling madly, bouncing up and down with her hands pressed to her mouth. Then she pivots, looking around the crowd, before darting over to the cordons and pulling at the sleeve of someone – a someone who, Rewind realizes after a moment, is a somewhat hesitant but still smiling Bumblebee. He resists for a moment, but then gives in with good grace, following Isobel into the center of the space. When he moves, Groove is revealed standing behind him, smiling overbearingly at his friends.

There are cat-calls and whistles as Bumblebee moves into position behind Isobel, one hand on her waist and one on her chin, turning her face towards him. They stare at each other for a moment, grinning. And then they're off.

Bumblebee pushes Isobel out into a fast spin, taking hold of her hand to control the movement. Except, instead of stopping her when she came to the end of their reach, he follows, letting her fall slightly forward until he catches her around her waist again, lifting her up. The crowd cheers.

And then Bumblebee slips on a patch of ice, promptly dropping them both to the ground.

Rewind winces, even though he knows that a tumble like that won't hurt the holoform. Isobel, though, is another matter. Thankfully, it seems that she's crashed down on top of Bumblebee. He's not soft either, Rewind knows, but he's softer than the ground.

The crowd is laughing. So is Isobel. Groove looks concerned, but they're quickly back on their feet, resuming what Rewind realizes is a practiced routine. He's impressed. So's the crowd, by the sound of things – and they should be, too. He's willing to bet that the routine they're doing is not normal fare for this kind of thing. If it wasn't for that fall, maybe they would have been considered professional performers.

Until their moves change, at least.

He watches as the routine descends into total silliness. They're still moving in sync, but now it's less class and more sass, somehow. His optic ridges raise as Isobel somehow seems to be walking backwards and forwards at the same time (something he didn't think humans were capable of due to the configuration of their skeletal structure) before Bumblebee catches her and spins her again.

And then the promised mayhem ensues. Because the choreographed routine turns into some form of one-uppance, where it looks like Bumblebee and Isobel each are trying to outdo each other. The moves turn steadily more strange, more parodic, until Isobel caps the whole thing by tugging Bee's hat down over his eyes and spinning him until he's facing away. Then she pushes him straight into Groove's arms, raising her arms in triumph.

That grin, though. That grin is his undoing, and suddenly Rewind is laughing as hard as everyone else. Because the camera's zooming in on Isobel, and she winks at it. Probably not at that exact cell phone, unless it's the only one filming, but she winks, in an expression not unlike Eject's when Blaster caught him with a hand in the box of energon goodies. And behind her, Bumblebee's laughing in Groove's arms, while the Protectobot carefully tries – and fails – to get him to stand on his own feet instead of dangling from Groove's arms like a puppet. In the end he gives up and just drops him, leaving Bumblebee laughing helplessly in a pile at Groove's feet.

The video has half a million views already.

Rewind disconnects from the datapad, turning to his still-grinning brother. "Has everyone seen this?"

Eject, of course, knows exactly what he means. "Wanna come with me and show First Aid?"

Crashing into the med bay, into the domain of the Hatchet, while grinning and cackling like idiots, is a surefire road to a wrench to the helm. So Rewind insists that they be responsible, standing outside and pinging for entrance for once instead of barging in.

Which is a good thing, at least if one is to judge by the noises coming from inside the doors. Cautiously, Rewind leans closer, listening to the two pairs of pedefalls, the quiet moaning, the soft murmurs and the faint slide of metal against metal.

Oh, yes. He grins at his brother, who smirks wickedly back at him. They would have gotten much worse than a helm to the head today.

Still, they're mechs on a mission. So Rewind pings for entrance again.

"Frag it," someone swears from inside. Eject giggles quietly.

Ratchet opens the doors, glares down at them. "What do you two glitches want?"

"First Aid," Eject pipes up. "Can we borrow him for a moment?"

Ratchet sighs, then nods his head towards the other end of the hall. "Inventory. Get out of here."

"Yes, Ratchet," Rewind grins. "Thank you!"

"Have fun in there!" Eject smirks, before dodging out of the way of the expected wrench. Ratchet growls at them before closing the door again and locking it.

'So who do you think it was?'

Eject turns and grins at him. 'I know who it was. You do, too.'

'Yeah,' Rewind nods. 'No surprise there.'

'Except how long it took Ratchet to cave,' Eject agrees. 'Like Stanley Cup playoffs, but, like, triple."

Rewind just shrugs. He has a feeling he would need a degree in sports in one of those human universities to understand his brother's references. Still, the meaning is clear enough. 'Yeah.'

They find First Aid in the back, doing inventory, just as Ratchet said. He turns when they arrive, carefully putting down the box of equipment he's moving. "Hey, you two. What brings you here?"

"We wanted to show you this!" Eject is bouncing now, grabbing at the apprentice medic's hand and tugging to get him to sit down. First Aid, nice as he is, complies easily, dropping to the floor with his legs akimbo in front of him. Eject snuggles into his side, holding up the datapad, so Rewind goes to the Protectobot's other side and sits down there.

Eject hits play, turns the sound up, and settles down with a grin to watch the video again.

Rewind, though? Rewind watches First Aid. Surreptitiously, out of the corner of his eye, concealed by his visor, he watches. Looking at First Aid watching Isobel is more interesting than watching Isobel herself.

The Protectobot is focusing on the screen. His face is concealed behind visor and surgical mask, but Rewind has long experience reading emotions despite those kinds of shielding. He knows what he's looking at.

First Aid's fascinated. Then amused. And then entranced.

Rewind watches as First Aid gently lifts a hand up, fingers tracing delicately in the air above the datapad. Tracing his human's outline.

"What's it like?" Eject asks quietly. "Being in love with a human?"

First Aid retracts his mask, lets them see his smile. "Being in love is the most fantastic thing you can imagine. This knowledge that there's someone out there that I would give my absolute everything for, happily, and that would do the same for me, it's… It's a heady, powerful thing, guys. And her being human doesn't matter." His voice softens, as Isobel winks up at them from the screen. "Love doesn't differentiate. Isobel is perfect."

"The different species thing can make problems for you, though," Rewind points out.

"Yes," First Aid agrees. He turns his head, looks down at the cassette. "But tell me something worth having that isn't worth fighting for."

"She's worth fighting for?" Eject asks softly, looking at the paused image of the blonde human.

"She's worth it all," First Aid replies, looking down at the woman on the screen again.

Rewind looks from the datapad to First Aid and back. Yeah. Yeah, he'd say it looks like she is, to First Aid. The medic's got it bad.

And, apparently, despite all evidence to the contrary, despite them being so completely different, despite all that, it's not a bad thing.

*Rewind, where are you?*

Rewind jumps about two feet into the air in alarm. "Oh, slag! I'm supposed to be on duty!"

Eject laughs hard enough to fall over as Rewind bolts to his feet and races out.

Monitor duty on Diego Garcia can be okay enough, Rewind muses. Especially when he's sharing it with easy-going Arcee. She chatters at him a bit, but is just as content in the silence, and she doesn't care if he's playing quiz games on his console along with the vidfeed.

Yeah, he likes Arcee. Not as much as Blaster likes her, of course. Though he suspects that First Aid likes Isobel more than Blaster likes Arcee.

Oh well. Statistics show that more couples break up than bond, if only by a small margin. So he's not worried. It will happen or it won't.

Right now, he's more concerned with the vidfeeds, for once. Because Skyfire just landed. And Rewind watches as Isobel comes darting out of the plane, throwing herself into a waiting First Aid's arms. A glance over at Arcee's console shows that she's watching the same thing, even though they're strictly not supposed to watch the same feeds at the same time.

Still, they both watch. Because First Aid is holding Isobel tightly, and Isobel's clinging to him, and maybe both the femme and the cassette are curious as to what such a relationship feels like.

Rewind, thankful yet again for his visor, watches Arcee; the wistful half-smile, the soft optics.

Yeah, it'll work out or it won't. He hopes it does, though. It would be interesting.


End file.
